KUNST n' Pompea Santoro: Learning to Move, Learning to Choose

In this episode, we sit down with legendary Italian dancer and teacher Pompea Santoro for a deeply personal conversation about artistry, identity, and transmission. From her early training between southern Italy and Turin to her extraordinary 25-year collaboration with Mats Ek at the Cullberg Ballet, Pompea reflects on the choices, risks, and inner transformations that shaped her path.She shares what it meant to embody iconic roles such as Giselle and Carmen, including the role of M. created specifically on her by Ek — a performance that later received an Emmy Award. We explore presence, vulnerability, and what it truly means to “serve the work” without losing yourself inside it.The conversation also traces her transition from performer to mentor, her ongoing work restaging Ek’s repertoire worldwide, and the vision behind the EkoDance International Project, created to nurture the next generation of artists.Honest, profound, and full of lived wisdom, this episode is an intimate reflection on artistic growth, legacy, and what it means to remain human — both on and off the stage.